Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1888 — BLAINE AND THE CABINET. [ARTICLE]

BLAINE AND THE CABINET.

A telegram from New York on the 14th states that Mr. Blaine had been tendered and had accepted the position of Secretary of State by Gen. Harrison. A reporter called on Gen. Harrison to verify the report. Mr. Harrison refused to deny or confirm it. The report is believed by those close to the Presidentelect, to be without foundation. One of the New York patters announced that the correspondence between the twe men would be made public in a few hours. In the Cincinnati Enquirer Friday appeared a telegram from W. C. Macßride, in which be affirms the truthfulness of the report “without reservation, because the information comes to myself from a source not to be challenged or questioned.” Interviews regarding the matter with several of Mr. Blaine’s friends in Washington, among them Senator Hale and Congressmen Boutelle and Reed,are published. They do not confirm the report, but they think it is true, because they believe that Mr. Blaine ought to be the Secretary of State, “for purely patriotic reasons.” Mr. Boutelle says: “It is suspected that the report was started by friends of Mr. Blaine who have evinced a determination to force General Harrison to take him into the Cabinet. “But,” remarked one of the friends of the Presidentelect to a reporter, “General Harrison is the kind of a man who can wi'hstand such pr ssure.” An Associated Press telegram from New York credits Thomas C. Platt with referring to the story as “bosh.” He ooes not believe that the position has been tendered Mr. Blaine, and he savs that the report was started by a correspondent of a Cincinnati paper. It was sent to every newspaper in New York, but editore who detected its character threw it into the-waste basket. An Augusta (Me.) special says that Mr. Blaine declines to give any information as to the story of his having been offered the Secretaryship of State, and that Joseph H. Manley states that he does not believe General Harrison has tenderedthe position to Mr. Blaine, although he has always believed that it would be tendered and that Mr. Blaine would not accent.